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Venezuela Next?

Colombia: Chavez Funding FARC Rebels

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Venezuela vowed to expel Colombia's ambassador and Ecuador completely broke diplomatic ties on Monday, two days after Colombian commandos killed a guerrilla leader and several rebels in a cross-border incursion into Ecuador.

Colombia's police chief, meanwhile, said documents found on a laptop computer seized in the raid offered evidence that the governments of Venezuela and Ecuador provided political and financial support to Colombia's largest guerrilla group.

The Colombian commando raid on Saturday that killed rebel leader Raul Reyes infuriated Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and his ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez has called Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe a "mob boss" and a "liar." Both countries have mobilized troops toward their borders with Colombia.

"The government of Ecuador has decided to break off diplomatic relations with the government of Colombia starting today," a statement from Ecuador's foreign ministry said.

Later, the Venezuelan foreign ministry announced its decision, saying it was acting "in defense of the sovereignty of the fatherland and the dignity of the Venezuelan people."

It said the government "has decided to order the immediate expulsion ... of the ambassador of the Republic of Colombia in Venezuela, and the diplomatic personnel of the Colombian Embassy in Caracas."

Colombia said military commandos first bombed a camp on its side of the border. It said the troops came under fire from across the border in Ecuador and encountered Reyes' body when they overran that camp.

Correa called that version an outright lie — "It was a massacre," he said.

Among the documents found on the seized laptop computer are ones that suggest Venezuela recently paid $300 million to FARC and that the rebels had appeared interested in buying uranium, Gen. Oscar Naranjo said. Another document suggests that rebels have had financial ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez since 1992, when he was jailed for leading a coup attempt.

"When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium this means that the FARC are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor. We're not talking of domestic guerrilla but transnational terrorism," said Naranjo, without giving more details.

Naranjo said the $300 million was mentioned in a Feb. 14 message in Reyes' laptop. Colombia was investigating to determine if the money was intended as payment for Chavez brokering the rebels' recent release of hostages, he said.

"At this moment, the only thing that can be said is that there is a payment," Naranjo said. He provided no proof of the payment and journalists were not given copies of the documents. Naranjo said other documents suggest Ecuador's president is deepening relations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia as well — a claim Ecuador denied — and that Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the top FARC leader, is closely allied with the Venezuelan government.

"This implies more than cozying up, but an armed alliance between the FARC and the Venezuelan government," he said.

Another document in Reyes' laptop suggests that rebels have had financial ties when Chavez was in jail in 1992 and plotting the comeback that eventually led to his election as president in 1998.

"A note recovered from Raul Reyes speaks of how grateful Chavez was for the 100 million pesos (about $150,000 at the time) ... delivered to Chavez when he was in prison," Naranjo said.

Correa said Colombia deliberately carried out the strike beyond its borders, flying deep into Ecuador to bomb the rebel camp. He said the rebels were "bombed and massacred as they slept, using precision technology."

Colombian officials have long complained rebels are allowed to take refuge across its borders in both Ecuador and Venezuela.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Monday that his government isn't moving any troops and "we have the situation under control."

A U.S. State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said the United States supports Colombia's right to defend itself against the FARC and called for dialogue between Colombia and Ecuador.

"From our perspective this is an issue between Colombia and Ecuador," he said. "I'm not sure what this has to do with Venezuela."

Other Latin American leaders including Mexico's Felipe Calderon and Chile's Michelle Bachelet offered to mediate.

"A situation like this requires an explanation from Colombia to Ecuadoreans, to the Ecuadorean president and to the entire region," Bachelet said. "We are very worried."

At the scene of the attack, Ecuadorean troops covered their faces with bandannas to ward off the stench from bodies splayed on the ground in their underwear. Scattered among the corpses were pieces of clothing, shoes, guns, grenades and a refrigerator.

Soldiers also found three wounded women at the camp — a Mexican philosophy student injured by shrapnel and two Colombians — who were evacuated by helicopter to be treated.

Colombian commandos had removed the cadavers of Reyes and one other rebel.

Indignant, Chavez said "they wanted to show off the trophy" and called it "cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated."

"This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said. He warned Uribe: "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois" — Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.

"This is saber-rattling, trying to make a point," said Adam Isacson, an analyst for the Washington-based Center for International Policy, adding that Chavez "has all but said that the FARC will be safe in Venezuela, and that the Venezuelan armed forces would respond to a similar Colombian incursion into Venezuelan territory."

The situation pushed tense relations between Venezuela and Colombia to a new nadir, though few seem to have an appetite for war. Isacson cautioned that the countries share robust trade, the militaries "are not enthusiastic" and the populations of the neighbors "are hardly consumed by war fever."

Chavez has increasingly revealed his sympathies for the leftist FARC, and in January asked that it be struck from international terror lists. The group funds itself largely through the cocaine trade and kidnaps for ransom and political ends.

Colombia said military commandos, tracking Reyes through an informant, first bombed a camp on the Colombian side of the border. It said the troops came under fire from across the border in Ecuador and encountered Reyes' body when they overran that camp. Correa called this version an outright lie — "It was a massacre," he said.

Link

States like these and their terrorist allies...?
 
mmmm "Found" a laptop that happened to contain...Buying Nuclear material...blah blah. mmmmm
 
The return of Ken!

Livingstone to be Chavez adviser

Ken Livingstone and Hugo Chavez share similar socialist views
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone is to work as a consultant for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mr Livingstone, who has long been a supporter of Mr Chavez, will advise pro-government mayors in the capital Caracas on urban planning.

He said he was "proud and honoured" to be part of the city's transformation.

As mayor, Mr Livingstone struck a deal to swap cheap Venezuelan oil for city planning advice, but it was cancelled by his successor Boris Johnson.

After a meeting with Mr Chavez in Caracas on Wednesday, the former mayor said he was pleased that Venezuela would now get the "advice that we promised".

The BBC's James Ingham said the two men, who share left-wing political views, hugged each other like old friends.

Transport and tourism

In February 2007, Mr Livingstone signed an oil deal with Venezuela to provide cheap fuel for London's buses.

He said at the time the agreement would help provide half-price bus and tram travel to some 250,000 Londoners on income support.

In return, the mayor was to offer officials in Caracas advice on municipal transport, environmental issues, waste management and tourism. Ken Livingstone is free, as a private individual, to offer his advice and services to whomever he wants

Spokesman for London Mayor Boris Johnson

But after taking office in May, Mr Johnson announced he would not renew the deal, saying many Londoners found it "uncomfortable".

Mr Livingstone said on Wednesday he hoped to help Caracas undergo a transformation in the next 20 years.

"President Chavez has asked that I continue to work with the city and its new mayors to use the experience of London to actually give form to his dream that this can be a first world city in a first world country," he said.

"I am proud and honoured to be in a position to be able to offer my advice to those candidates as they start the task of transforming this city for the benefit of all its people."

Mr Chavez is fighting regional and local elections in November.

The contests, for state governors, mayors and councillors, are being seen as a critical test of Mr Chavez and his political project.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson said he had vowed in his mayoral manifesto to scrap Mr Livingstone's deal and had "kept that promise to the people of London".

"Boris Johnson made it clear during his election campaign that he did not want to be on the payroll of Hugo Chavez and did not believe a poor South American country should be subsidising one of the wealthiest cities in the world," he said.

"Ken Livingstone is free, as a private individual, to offer his advice and services to whomever he wants."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7585330.stm
 
Ken will have a Russian Fleet to back him up. Full text at link.


The Venezuelan government announced Sunday that four Russian naval
vessels will participate in joint exercises in the Caribbean this
year.

http://www1.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-2 ... 114314.htm

Venezuela's naval intelligence chief, Adm. Salbatore Cammarata
Bastidas, said in a statement that a task force including four
Russian naval vessels and 1,000 Russian military personnel would
take part in mid-November exercises with Venezuelan frigates, patrol
boats, submarines and aircraft.

The announcement came shortly after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's
deployment of several warships to the Black Sea in the aftermath of
Russia's invasion of Georgia last month would not go unanswered.

The Russian agreement to send ships also could be seen as part of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's campaign to build up his
military, an effort that includes arms deals, a proposed hemispheric
South American Defense Council and a recent decree that gives his
armed forces a greater role in carrying out his social agenda.
 
Full text at link.


Venezuela insults United States, expels ambassador
By Frank Jack Daniel

CARACAS, Sep. 12, 2008 (Reuters) — Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has thrust the OPEC nation into its worst diplomatic crisis for years by expelling the U.S. ambassador in a growing feud between Washington and Latin America's leftist leaders.

Chavez, who calls ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, also on Thursday repeated a threat he has made often to cut off Venezuela's oil supply to the United States.

"Go to hell, s--- Yankees, we are a dignified people, go to hell a hundred times," Chavez shouted at a political rally to thousands of roaring supporters dressed in red.

Chavez said Thursday's move was made in support of his close ally President Evo Morales of Bolivia, where violent anti-government protests have killed eight people.

"The Yankee ambassador in Caracas has got 72 hours to get out of Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia," Chavez said.

Morales, a leftist Aymara Indian, this week expelled the U.S. ambassador in the poor Andean nation after accusing him of instigating the protests.

Chavez said Washington was behind an alleged plot by retired military officers to kill him and said it had plans to bomb him from planes marked as Venezuelan.

"If there was an aggression against Venezuela there would be no oil for the people or for the government of the United States," the former paratrooper said.

The United States has rejected the allegations by Chavez and Morales. It retaliated against Bolivia on Thursday by ordering its ambassador to Washington to leave. Chavez told his own ambassador to the United States to come home before he was thrown out.

He also cut U.S. flights to Venezuela and warned he would support "armed movements" to back Morales in the event of a coup against him.

Chavez frequently calls the United States an aggressive empire and has aligned himself with Russia. Moscow is also sending warships for naval exercises later this year in its first such move since the Cold War.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/n11512 ... a-chavez/#
 
Chavez seeks to rename Venezuela's Angel Falls
Angel Falls
Angel Falls could henceforth be known as Kerepakupai-Meru

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called for the world's highest waterfall, Angel Falls, to be given back its indigenous name.

The falls, which drop nearly 1km (0.6 miles) from a flat-topped mountain in the south of Venezuela, are currently named after a 1930s US aviator.

Jimmy Angel is believed to have been the first outsider to see them.

Mr Chavez said they should be called Kerepakupai-Meru, the name used by the indigenous Pemon people of the area.

Mr Chavez, who accuses the US of plotting against his country, said that thousands of indigenous people had seen the falls before Jimmy Angel "discovered" them.

Angel Falls at least partially inspired Paradise Falls, the fantasy Latin American waterfall in the recent Disney/Pixar animated film Up.

Third name

Speaking on his weekly TV show, Mr Chavez asked Venezuelans how they could accept the idea that "the highest waterfall in the world was discovered by a man who came from the United States in a plane?"

US explorer Jimmy Angel in 1937
Jimmy Angel's ashes were scattered over the waterfall

"With all respect to that man who came, who saw it, we should change that name, right?" he argued.

He initially said the name should be "Churun-Meru" but then corrected himself on air after receiving a note from his daughter Maria pointing out that the Pemon Indian name of the waterfall was Kerepakupai-Meru.

After several minutes practising the proper name, the president of the mainly Spanish-speaking country declared he had mastered it.

"That's the name... the name of the Indians," he said.

The waterfall is among Venezuela's most famous tourist destinations.

Jimmy Angel died at the age of 57 in a 1956 plane crash in Panama.

"One could say he was the first one to see it from a plane," Mr Chavez said.

"But how many millions of indigenous eyes saw it, and prayed to it? No-one should refer to Angel Falls any more," he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8423857.stm
 
Chavez Film: Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali: brothers in arms

Tariq Ali has written the commentary for Oliver Stones new documentary about Hugo Chavez. Here he writes on how the film was made. Full story at link.

Almost a year and a half ago I received a phone call from Paraguay. It was Oliver Stone. He had been reading Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, my collection of essays on the changing politics of Latin America, and asked if I was familiar with his work. I was, especially the political films in which he challenged the fraudulent accounts of the Vietnam war that had gained currency during the B-movie years of Reagan's presidency.

It does not set out to be an analytical, distanced, cold-blooded view of leaders desperate to free themselves from the stranglehold of the Big Brother up north. The film is sympathetic to their cause, which is essentially a cry for freedom, the interviews with the seven elected presidents forming its spinal cord. Chávez is given centre stage, because he was the pioneering leader of the radical social-democratic experiments currently underway in the continent, and his country has large oil reserves. "If the film convinces people that Chávez is a democratically elected president and not the evil dictator depicted in much of the western media," Stone said, "we will have achieved our purpose."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jul ... ugo-chavez
 
Venezuela's Chavez to move into Gaddafi tent
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11974818

President Hugo Chavez addressing flood victims in Caracas President Chavez has taken personal charge of relief efforts

Related stories

* Venezuela floods kill at least 25
* Devastating floods hit Venezuela
* Ruins abound 10 years on from Venezuela floods

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he is going to govern temporarily from a tent so that families made homeless by recent floods can take refuge in his office.

Mr Chavez said he would have a Bedouin tent given to him by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi put up in the garden of the presidential palace.

Twenty-five families are already living in the palace after losing their homes.

The floods have made more than 100,000 people homeless across the country.

"Put up Gaddafi's gift," said Mr Chavez during a visit to a refuge for flood victims close to the Miraflores palace in Caracas.

"You can install it in the garden at Miraflores because I'm going to move into the tent. We can put some beds in my office."

Mr Chavez is an admirer of Col Gaddafi, who lives in a huge Bedouin tent in Libya, and brought one with him when he visited Venezuela last year.

The Venezuelan leader has been personally supervising relief efforts in response to the floods.
Continue reading the main story
A man looks at a destroyed house in the Catia district in Caracas

* In pictures: Venezuela floods

The worst rains in a decade have caused widespread destruction and killed more than 30 people.

Some of the worst damage has been in poor hillside neighbourhoods of Caracas, where landslides have swept away precarious houses.

Mr Chavez has promised a massive home-building programme, and on Friday appointed culture minister Francisco Sesto to the new role of minister for reconstruction in Caracas.

Neighbouring Colombia and much of Central America have also suffered from one of their worst May-November rainy seasons in decades.
 
Aircrew held in 'loco Chavez' farce

The captain and crew of an American Airlines flight were briefly detained after a crew member advised passengers to set their watches to "local Chavez time" upon arrival in Caracas, according to a secret US report revealed by WikiLeaks.

President Hugo Chavez created a new time zone for Venezuela in 2007, moving the clock back half an hour on a permanent basis.

The US embassy report, dated October 1 2008, released by the whistleblowing website, said there appeared to be a misunderstanding over one crucial word in the crew member's announcement - "local" vs "loco" - which means crazy in Spanish.

The embassy said one passenger, a friend of pro-Chavez MP Carlos Echezuria Rodriguez, thought the crew member said "loco Chavez time".

American Airlines local manager Omar Nottaro reported to the embassy that the crew member announced to passengers: "Welcome to Venezuela. Local Chavez time is ..."

The memo, written a day after the incident, said the airline manager's account was contradicted by that of Venezuelan immigration authorities, who wrote in their report that the crew member had announced "the hour of the crazy Chavez and his women".

Mr Chavez has long traded verbal barbs with US officials and the incident quickly escalated after the passenger told the MP friend, who was waiting for him outside, "that the pilot had called President Chavez crazy", the document said.

It said the congressman promptly reported the incident to then Vice President Ramon Carrizalez, who called the head of the civil aviation authority into action.

The embassy said Venezuela's DISIP domestic intelligence agency opened an investigation but deferred to immigration authorities since the crew had not passed through immigration. The crew then was held in the airport while officials discussed what would be done.

The American Airlines manager told a US diplomat that the MP demanded to hear recordings of the announcements when Flight 903 touched down. But the airline manager was able to defuse the situation "by promising to put the crew back on the empty airplane as soon as it was refuelled and get the captain and crew out of the country immediately", the memo said.

http://news.uk.msn.com/world/articles.a ... =155507260
 
Venezuela hero Simon Bolivar 'death tests' inconclusive
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14286902

President Chavez says he is inspired by Bolivar's ideals

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Scientists examining the exhumed remains of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar say they are unable to determine the cause of his death.

Last year, President Hugo Chavez ordered the exhumation of Bolivar from his tomb to see if there was any evidence that he was murdered.

Most historical accounts maintain he died from tuberculosis in 1830.

But the scientists found no evidence to support - or rule out - that theory.

They found no proof that he had been deliberately poisoned.

DNA samples taken from the bones and teeth of the skeleton were sent for analysis.

After the results were announced, Mr Chavez told parliamentarians he still believed that Simon Bolivar had been killed, even if he did not have the evidence.

Socialist parallels?
When Mr Chavez announced the exhumation of his hero on Twitter last year, he described how he "wept with emotion".

President Chavez likes to draw parallels between his socialist revolution and the liberation struggle of Simon Bolivar, even renaming the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, says the BBC's Sarah Grainger in Caracas.

Celebrations marking the anniversary of the birth of Bolivar on Sunday offered a way back into the political limelight for the President who had been absent from the country for a week, receiving chemotherapy in Cuba, adds our correspondent.

Venezuela's Vice President Elias Jaua said that scientists would continue to carry out tests on Bolivar's remains.

Known as "the Liberator", Simon Bolivar led the 19th Century revolutionary war against Spain, winning independence for Venezuela and several other South American nations.

The Venezuelan president claims him as the inspiration for his "Bolivarian" revolution, though some historians say Bolivar would not agree with Mr Chavez's socialist policies.
 
Chavez muses on US Latin America cancer plot

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has questioned whether the US has developed a secret technology to give cancer to left-wing leaders in Latin America.
Treated for cancer this year, Mr Chavez was speaking a day after news that Argentina's president had the disease.
Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and her predecessor Lula have also had cancer.
Mr Chavez said this was "very strange" but stressed that he was thinking aloud rather than making "rash accusations".

But he said the instances of cancer among Latin American leaders were "difficult to explain using the law of probabilities".
"Would it be strange if they had developed the technology to induce cancer and nobody knew about it?" Mr Chavez asked in a televised speech to soldiers at an army base.

Mr Chavez noted that US government scientists had infected Guatemalan prisoners with syphilis and other diseases in the 1940s, but that this had only come to light last year.
And he joked that he would now take extra care of the presidents of Bolivia and Ecuador - Evo Morales and Rafael Correa - lest they also be diagnosed with cancer.

The Venezuelan leader, who is 57, has often accused the US of plotting to overthrow or even kill him.
He says he is now free of cancer after having surgery and chemotherapy in Cuba earlier this year.
The exact details of his illness have not been made public, fuelling speculation that his condition may be worse than he has let on.

Mr Chavez was the first regional leader to offer support to the Argentine President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, after it was announced on Tuesday that she had thyroid cancer.
"We will live and we will conquer!" he told her.
Ms Fernandez, 58, is due to have an operation on 4 January, but doctors say her prognosis is very good.

Doctors treating former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for throat cancer say the 66-year-old is responding well to chemotherapy and should make a full recovery.

Dilma Rousseff, 64 - who took over from Lula as Brazilian president a year ago - is fully recovered after receiving treatment for lymphoma cancer in 2009.

Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, 60, was diagnosed with lymphoma in August 2010 but is now in remission after chemotherapy.

Lula and Mr Chavez have previously joked that they would hold a summit of Latin American leaders who had beaten cancer.
Ms Fernandez has now said that she will insist on being the "honorary president" of the summit of cancer survivors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16349845
 
Chavez does make me laugh, but it is an amazing coincidence that all of these South American leaders have had cancer at the same time...
 
I suppose it's not out of the realms of possibility - there was the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, although that was much more rapid.
Purely speculating, but maybe somebody's slipped a radioactive source into the President's office, perhaps embedded in the lining of an often-used chair?
 
Or maybe not...


Argentina's Fernandez sent home, never had cancer

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez never had cancer despite being diagnosed with the disease last month and having her thyroid gland removed on January 4, her spokesman said on Saturday.

The government announced just after Christmas that the recently re-elected leader had thyroid cancer.

The operation to remove the gland went well, but when it was later analyzed it turned out to have never contained cancerous cells, said spokesman Alfredo Scoccimaro.

"The original diagnosis has been modified," he told a news conference. "The presence of cancer cells was discarded."

Fernandez was originally diagnosed with papillary carcinoma.

continues

Reuters

People will say this disproves Hugo's theory but I take a very different view, an alarming, hysterical and palpably absurd one...

...not only does America have the ability to give its enemies cancer but now it appears it also has a cure for the disease, a cure which they're keeping secret from the rest of us. It's 2012 - can't people see what's about to go down?

This just gets curiouser and curiouser until it becomes really incredibly curious indeed. :shock: :cry:
 
A bit cryptic.

Venezuela crossword Chavez assassination plot denied
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18042494

The crossword has been compared to coded messages used by the French Resistance in WWII

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A Venezuelan crossword writer says he has been questioned by intelligence agents after being accused of hiding a coded assassination message in a puzzle.

Neptali Segovia denies using his crossword in the newspaper Ultimas Noticias to incite the murder of President Hugo Chavez's brother, Adan.

Answers to clues included the words "kill" and "Adan".

The accusation was made by a pro-government television commentator.

Political tension has been rising in Venezuela ahead of October's presidential election and because of uncertainty over the health of President Chavez, who is being treated for cancer.

'Nothing to hide'
Ultimas Noticias said Mr Segovia went voluntarily to the headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service after agents came looking for him at the newspaper's office in Caracas.

"I went because no-one is more interested in clarifying this than me," the paper quoted him as saying.

"I have nothing to hide because the work I have been doing for 17 years only has a cultural and educational intention," he added.

Mr Segovia said he had denied the accusation and had been treated respectfully.

The accusation against him was made earlier this week by television pundit Miguel Angel Perez Pirela, who presents a programme on the state channel VTV.

He said a team of psychologists and mathematicians had concluded that the Spanish-language crossword contained a coded assassination plot against President Chavez's brother Adan.

"These sorts of messages were used a lot during World War II," he said, comparing it to secret codes used by the French Resistance.

Correspondents say the story has caused widespread amusement, but also highlights an atmosphere of growing political polarisation in Venezuela.

President Chavez and his supporters have frequently accused opposition groups of plotting violence in the run-up to October's presidential election.

The opposition have in turn accused government supporters of planning to hang on to power by force if Mr Chavez loses the election to challenger Henrique Capriles Radonski or is unable to stand because of ill health.

Adan Chavez is governor of Barinas state and has been named as a possible successor to his brother.

Hugo Chavez has said he is determined to beat cancer and win the election, but secrecy about his illness has fuelled persistent rumours that it may be worse than officially admitted.

The Venezuelan president, who has been in power since 1999, has in the past accused his opponents and the US of plotting to assassinate him.
 
The accusation ... was made earlier this week by television pundit Miguel Angel Perez Pirela, who presents a programme on the state channel VTV.

He said a team of psychologists and mathematicians had concluded that the Spanish-language crossword contained a coded assassination plot against President Chavez's brother Adan

"These sorts of messages were used a lot during World War II," he said, comparing it to secret codes used by the French Resistance.
I've not heard about the French Resistance using crosswords before (although I suppose they may have).

I wonder if Pirela is misremembering the furore when several D-day code words turned up in several Daily Telegraph crosswords?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... ution.html
 
I can just see an 'Allo, 'Allo episode featuring messages in crossword clues.
 
He scores!

Chavez Wins!
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102562

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has secured a fourth term in office after defeating Henrique Capriles. There was a turnout of 81% with Chavez securing 54.66% to Capriles' 44.73%..While this was comfortable victory margin it was down from the 27 point lead in 2006. Recognising this Chavez praised the opposition for recognising the election result, and said he was "stretching out my hands and heart on our behalf because we are brothers in Bolivar's homeland".

Chavez addressed his supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace and said: "Truthfully, this has been the perfect battle, a democratic battle. Venezuela will continue its march toward the democratic socialism of the 21st Century. I promise you I'll be a better president."

After the election result was announced, President Fernandez of Argentina tweeted: "Your victory is our victory! And the victory of South America and the Caribbean!"

Comments from around the World.

Hugo Chavez celebrates re-election in Venezuela - Video.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19867445

Santiago O'Donnell in Argentina's leftist Pagina12: "There is a rational explanation for the results… Chavez could say without lying while campaigning that during his rule poverty had been halved... illiteracy in Venezuela had been brought to an end and services and political rights had been extended to large sections of the population for the first time. These have been fair, peaceful and well-attended elections."

A Socialist Victory In The Venezuelan Elections
By Billy Wharton

Tonight’s re-election of Hugo Chavez allows this project to continue - it demonstrates that millions of voters in Venezuela continue to support the ideals of a democratic socialism for the 21st century.

The election of right wing opposition candidate Henrique Capriles would have meant an immediate end to this process of social transformation. After years of deep disorganization and marginalization, the Venezuelan right-wing has now re-organized itself. It speaks the language of social-democracy while representing the social elements in Venezuela who lustily seek a return to the good old days before Chavez. They have certainly been helped in this effort by the pressure placed on the economy by the global economic crisis, by deep contradictions inside of the Chavez regime and by their deep-pocketed benefactors in the United States.

It was not just the US State Department that was deeply implicated in attempts to de-stabilize the Chavez regime. Mainstream media sources in the US served as virtual mouthpieces for the the right-wing opposition in Venezuela.
http://www.countercurrents.org/wharton081012.htm

Why Chavez Won BIG! A Comparison Between The Presidential Elections In The U.S. And Venezuela
By Mark Vorpahl

According to studies by the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Venezuela ranks first in a list of 12 Latin American countries that have reduced inequalities amongst their members.

In contrast, in the U.S., according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), between the years 2003 - 2005, $400 billion in pre-tax dollars was shifted from the bottom 95 percent to the top 5 percent, costing the bottom 95 percent households $3,660 each. While there was a drop in inequality for a short time after the stock market crash as a result of depleted stock portfolios, it has again accelerated. Since 2010, the top 1% has captured 93 percent of income gains.

When Chavez was first elected president, unemployment was 16.1 percent. Today it has been reduced to 6.5 percent (1) with one of the highest minimum wages in Latin America and food stipends. In contrast, in the U.S., 23 million remain unemployed or underemployed while the minimum wage has dramatically fallen behind the cost of living.
http://www.countercurrents.org/vorpahl081012.htm

Chávez Victory Affirms Left Still Thriving in Latin America

It was Chávez's third re-election victory in nearly 14 years in office and though the challenge from Capriles seemed to gain steam at times, the election results affirm that a majority roundly support the brand of socialism which has marked Venezuela under his leadership.

"Hugo Chávez’ re-election to another 6-year term shows that Venezuela, like the rest of South America, prefers governments of the left that have improved living standards and greatly reduced poverty and inequality," said Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C.

“Chávez is often portrayed as though he were from Mars, but really the similarities between what he has done and what his neighboring left governments have done are much greater than the differences,” said Weisbrot.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/08


Chavez Wins Venezuelan Presidential Election with 54% of the Vote

A spontaneous street party immediately kicked off in the centre of the Andean city of Merida, and a massive crowd of Chavez supporters began celebrating in front of the presidential palace, Miraflores, in Caracas.

“Venezuela will never return to neoliberalism and will continue in the transition to socialism of the 21st century,” Chavez declared to supporters from the “People’s Balcony” of the presidential palace, after his victory was confirmed. “I want make a recognition to the whole Venezuelan people, the whole Venezuelan nation. Today the country of (Simon) Bolivar was reborn,” added the socialist president, while congratulating the country “for a civic and democratic day”.

The re-elected Venezuelan president also congratulated the Venezuelan opposition for recognising the CNE’s result, saying “they’ve recognised the truth, they’ve recognised the victory of the people”.
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7331
 
http://www.voltairenet.org/article177049.html

Nicolas Sarkozy ordered the assassination of Hugo Chavez
VOLTAIRE NETWORK | CARACAS (VENEZUELA) | 3 JANUARY 2013


The Venezuelan Minister of Correctional Services, Iris Varela, has announced on her Twitter account the expulsion of a French citizen known as Frédéric Laurent Bouquet, December 29, 2012

Mr. Bouquet (photo) had been arrested in Caracas on June 18, 2009, with three Dominican nationals in possession of an arsenal. In the apartment he had acquired, forensic police seized 500 grams of C4 explosives, 14 assault rifles including 5 with telescopic lenses, 5 with laser sighting and one with a silencer, special cables, 11 electronic detonators, 19,721 cartridges of different calibers, 3 machine guns, 4 hand guns of different calibers, 11 radios, 3 walkie talkies and a radio base, five 12-gauge shotguns, 2 bulletproof vests, 7 military uniforms, 8 grenades, one gas mask, one combat knife and 9 bottles of gunpowder.

During his trial, Mr. Bouquet admitted he had been trained in Israel and was an agent of French military intelligence service (DGSE). He admitted planning an attack to assassinate Constitutional President Hugo Chavez.

Mr. Bouquet had been sentenced to four years in prison for "illegal possession of weapons." He served his sentence. He was taken from his cell by Ordinance No. 096-12 of trial judge Yulismar Jaime, then was expelled for "undermining national security" under Article 39 paragraph 4 of the Migration and Foreigners Act.


Venezuelan authorities had so far refrained from communicating on this subject. The facts were confirmed by the spokesman of the Quai d’Orsay, Philippe Lalliot. The French Embassy in Caracas declined to comment.

From our investigation we can conclude that:
(1) President Nicolas Sarkozy had ordered the assassination of his counterpart Hugo Chavez;
(2) the operation was a fiasco;
(3) France granted substantial compensation to stifle this matter during Mr Sarkozy’s term in office.
 
Venezuela Catholic Church 'running out of wine'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22684619

Venezuela's Catholic Church says it has communal wine for just two months

The Catholic Church in Venezuela has said it is running out of wine to celebrate Mass because of nationwide shortages of basic supplies.

It said the scarcity of some products had forced the country's "only wine maker" to stop selling to the Church.

Critics blame the shortages on tight state control of the economy and inadequate domestic production.

But the government insists that an opposition-led conspiracy and price speculations are the problem.

"[Our supplier] Bodegas Pomar have told us that they can no longer make wine because they're facing difficulties," Church spokesman Monsignor Lucker told BBC News.

Some of the items the supplier had to import to make the wine were now scarce, said the spokesman.

Monsignor Lucker added that they had enough supplies for just two more months, and that he did not know if the Church could afford wines from abroad.

But the problem was not limited to wine, he said.

"The makers of consecrated bread have told us that they'll have to raise prices because they can't find enough flour.

"Wheat is not grown here - it all comes from abroad," he said.

"A packet of consecrated bread used to cost 50 bolivar ($8, £5), but it's now 100."

Toilet paper shortages

Many Venezuelans rushed to buy toilet paper after new stock arrivals
Oil-rich Venezuela relies on imports, but currency controls have restricted its ability to pay for foreign goods, a reason for the shortages.

Supplies of milk, sugar, cooking oil and corn flour - which is used to make Venezuela's national dish, arepas - are all affected, including sanitary items.

Last week, Venezuelan lawmakers approved plans to import millions of rolls of toilet paper, in an effort to relieve a chronic shortage.

BBC Mundo correspondent Abraham Zamorano, in the capital, Caracas, says many Venezuelans are wondering why this is happening to a self-proclaimed rich country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
 
"Last month, Maduro displayed a photograph that he said was of Chavez's face mysteriously revealing itself on the wall of a newly dug metro tunnel in Caracas."

Hmmm.

Venezuela: Chavez daughters won't leave president's palace
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-fr ... e-24913104

Maduro in bird hat on the campaign trail

Maduro's hat marks the moment Chavez's spirit appeared to him in bird form

The daughters of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez are preventing his successor from moving into the official presidential residence, it's claimed.

Rosa Virginia and Maria Gabriela Chavez are still living in La Casona palace in Caracas even though President Nicolas Maduro has ordered them out, Spain's ABC daily reports.

The daughters have reportedly had "several altercations" with the president and his wife, and refuse to leave the palace that has been their home for more than a decade.

As a result, ABC says, the president has to spend some nights at the Mountain Barracks, where Hugo Chavez is buried. In television appearances, Maduro says he draws inspiration from the proximity of his predecessor's tomb.

It's eight months since the long-serving and charismatic Chavez died of cancer, but he remains revered by many and his legacy is still palpable in Venezuela. Maduro, a self-confessed Chavista, claims his presidential election campaign was blessed by Chavez's spirit, who appeared to him disguised as a bird.

Last month, Maduro displayed a photograph that he said was of Chavez's face mysteriously revealing itself on the wall of a newly dug metro tunnel in Caracas.
 
Full text at link.

Don’t trust Maduro

There is a danger that the Chávista regime will arrive at a compromise with the right, warns Daniel Harvey


Middle classes: empty pots?
Over the last two weeks in Venezuela there has been no let-up in clashes between the rightwing opposition, led by the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática), and the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) led by president Nicolás Maduro. Almost exactly a year ago his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, died of throat cancer, leaving the future of the regime in the balance, as the right began to make electoral ground.

The wealthy opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski, was defeated last year in the presidential election by a narrow margin of just over one percent. Since then the opposition has been more convincingly defeated in municipal elections in December, with the government winning 49% versus the opposition’s 43%.

Following this failure to dislodge the PSUV, the opposition switched tactics, with Capriles calling for street demonstrations in protest at the dire economic situation. There has been a dramatic increase in the rate of inflation, currently officially at about 50%, but for many this has been compounded by shortages of staple goods. Many Venezuelans have been queuing for hours before shops open in order to have a chance of buying what becomes available.

Venezuela has been hit by a collapse in production, which means that the country has been able neither to provide for itself nor export goods to balance against necessary imports. Oil is virtually the only export still flowing satisfactorily, but car production, for instance, has completely flat-lined. One often cited statistic is that Venezuela has produced only a couple of hundred cars since the year began - which is half the production for a single day under normal conditions. Foreign direct investment has been coming from China in the recent past, but it is clearly not enough to offset the current problems.

At the moment, demonstrations seem confined to the student movement and the rightwing opposition. Originally Capriles called for a day of protest on the February 12 ‘Day of Youth’, and this brought the students out onto the streets with slogans about the lack of prospects and shortages. The mostly middle class protestors who joined them have demanded action against crime, which has escalated sharply during the Chávista period, and corruption, which, it is fair to say, is endemic. On the one hand, the murder rate has increased from 25 to 79 homicides per 100,000 since 1999 and, on the other hand, one widely cited figure is that $2 billion have disappeared from public accounts in the last year alone in the form of bribes.

Clashes

The Maduro government has employed heavy-handed tactics to crack down on street demonstrations using the National Guard and riot police. For the most part they have been using tear gas and truncheons, but shots have also fire has been applied in some situations, and 23 protestors have been killed.

Among the dead was a leader of the student movement in Venezuela, Daniel Tinoco, who was shot in the chest during clashes in San Christóbal on March 10. So far well over 300 people have been shot and wounded. Protestors have taken to setting up barricades and throwing rocks and other missiles at police.

To further complicate matters, organised criminal gangs, typically centred on drug and oil trafficking over the border with Colombia, have merged with some opposition protests - they are identifiable thanks to their black masks. At the same time, elements loyal to the government have organised into colectivos - armed groups typically riding on motorcycles who harass and assault opposition protestors. The country is awash with guns, so the potential for an escalation is very high. ...
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-work ... ust-maduro
 
Hes in Valhalla, not Heaven.

CONTROVERSY IN VENEZUELA OVER CHAVEZ PRAYER

VENEZUELA: A rewriting of the Christian Lord’s Prayer to commemorate the late Hugo Chavez is causing controversy in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s Roman Catholic Church is denouncing the use of the socialist leader’s name in an “untouchable” prayer.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro defends it, and calls critics “new inquisitors”.

The back and forth started when socialist party delegate Maria Estrella Uribe read the prayer at a party convention.

“Our Chavez who art in heaven,” she began, continuing, “lead us not into the temptation of capitalism.”

Chavez’s legacy has taken on a religious glow in Venezuela since the leader’s death last year. Rosaries adorned with Chavez’s face, shrines and images depicting him with a Christian cross have become commonplace. Followers often say they believe Chavez was on a divine mission. ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 85332.html
 
Last edited:
Was there a new attempt at a coup d'Etat against Maduro, directed from Washington ?

http://www.voltairenet.org/article186879.html

Obama failed his coup in Venezuela

by Thierry Meyssan

Once again, the Obama administration has tried to force the change of a political regime that resists it. On February 12, an Academi (formerly Blackwater) plane disguised as an aircraft of the Venezuelan army was supposed to bomb the presidential palace and kill President Nicolas Maduro. The plotters had planned to place former MP María Corina Machado in power and have her immediately acclaimed by former Latin American presidents.


VOLTAIRE NETWORK | DAMASCUS (SYRIA) | 24 FEBRUARY 2015


President Obama had given a warning. In his new doctrine of Defence (National Security Strategy), he wrote: "We stand with citizens whose full exercise of democracy is in danger, as the Venezuelans." Yet, Venezuela is, since the adoption of the 1999 constitution, one of the most democratic countries in the world. This sentence presaged the worst to prevent it from continuing its path to independence and wealth redistribution.


It was on February 6, 2015. Washington was finishing developing the plan for the overthrow of the democratic institutions of Venezuela. The coup was planned for February 12.


"Operation Jericho" was supervised by the National Security Council (NSC), under the authority of Ricardo Zuñiga. This "diplomat" is the grandson of the homonymous president of the Honduran National Party who organized the coups of 1963 and 1972 in favor of General López Arellano. He directed the CIA station in Havana (2009-11), where he recruited and financed agents to form the opposition to Fidel Castro while negotiating the resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba (finally concluded in 2014).


[…...]

Military action was overseen by General Thomas W. Geary, from SOUTHCOM in Miami, and Rebecca Chavez, from the Pentagon, and outsourced to a private army, Academi (formerly Blackwater); a company now administered by Admiral Bobby R. Inman (former head of the NSA) and John Ashcroft (the former Attorney General of the Bush administration). A Super Tucano, registered N314TG, purchased by the Virginia firm in 2008 to assassinate Raul Reyes, the No. 2 man in the Colombian FARC, was to be disguised as an airplane of the Venezuelan army. It was supposed to bomb the Miraflores presidential palace and other targets from a pre-determined dozen, including the Ministry of Defence, the management of Intelligence at the ALBA, Telesur television channel. The plane, being parked in Colombia, the operational headquarters of "Jericho" had been installed at the US Embassy in Bogota with the participation of the Ambassador, Kevin Whitaker and his deputy, Benjamin Ziff.


Some senior officers, active or retired, had registered in advance a message to the nation in which they announced the takeover of power in order to restore order. They were scheduled to subscribe to the transition plan, published on February 12 in the morning by El Nacional and drafted by the US State Department. A new government would have been formed, led by former MP María Corina Machado.



María Corina Machado was the president of Súmate, the association that organized and lost the recall referendum against Hugo Chávez Frias, in 2004, already with money from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the French advertising services of Jacques Seguela. Despite her defeat, she was received with honor by President George W. Bush in the Oval Office, May 31, 2005. Elected representative of Miranda state in 2011, she suddenly appeared on 21 March 2014 as Chief of the Panamanian delegation to the Organization of American States (OAS). She was immediately dismissed from her duties as a member for violation of sections 149 and 191 of the Constitution.


To facilitate the coordination of the coup, María Corina Machado organized a symposium in Caracas on January 26, "Citizen Power and Democracy today", which was attended by most of the Venezuelan and foreign personalities involved.


No luck, Venezuelan Military Intelligence watched personalities suspected of hatching a previous plot to assassinate President Maduro. Last May, the Caracas prosecutor had accused María Corina Machado, Henrique Salas Römer, governor, former diplomat Diego Arria, lawyer Gustavo Tarre Birceño, Eligio Cedeño, banker and businessman Pedro M. Burelli, but they challenged emails, claiming they had been falsified by Military Intelligence. Of course, they were all in cahoots.


By tracking these conspirators, Military Intelligence discovered "Operation Jericho". On the night of February 11, the main leaders of the plot and a Mossad agent were arrested and aviation security was enhanced. Others were rounded up on the 12th. On the 20th, confessions obtained permitted the arrest of an accomplice, the mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma.

[…...]

The article gives no sources (drawing apprently directly from the Venzuelan press). However, a number of sites by expatriates living in Venezuela give similar information.
 
We are seeing a classic case of destabilisation in Venezuela; an economic war directed by Washington creating artificial shortages. Opposition leaders drawing up documents for a transitional administration without the need for any elections.

If Milliband drew up plans to oust the Coalition without the need for an election then his collar would also be felt.
 
Rich Not Starving in Venezuela, Basque Executive Shows

To prove his relatives in Spain wrong, Otxotorena published a series of photographs of fully-stocked markets in upper class neighborhoods in Caracas.
Agustin Otxotorena, a Basque executive living in Caracas, grew tired of constant calls from friends and relatives in Spain telling him that there was no food in Venezuela, so on May 20 he began publishing photos on Facebook of supermarkets in upscale sectors of Caracas filled with goods.

IN DEPTH:
Is There Hunger in Venezuela?

In addition to showing evidence of plenty of food stuffs, Otxotorena also analyzed the situation. He concluded that there are two countries in Venezuela—one where "there are many people having a hard time, who don’t have the money to live,” and another where there is "an upper class that has a living standard higher than Europe." ...

Otxotorena’s conclusion is that indeed there is a war against the Venezuelan people, whose criminal and coup character is encouraged by some international media "that would not bear or endure a 10th of these behaviors if they occurred in their countries.

"Everything goes toward the overthrow of Chavismo. However, whatever, whenever ... The only thing that matters to them (the opposition), even if the country is destroyed, is to get the Blacks, the poor, the Indigenous, the ‘ugly people’ or ‘peasants’ out of power.

Unfortunately, they are very racist and classist …”

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/ne...Food-in-Venezuelan-Capital-20160530-0001.html
 
Has Maduro Really Dissolved the National Assembly in Venezuela?
By RACHAEL BOOTHROYD ROJAS AND RYAN MALLETT-OUTTRIM, March 31st 2017

What on earth is going on in Venezuela?

Since yesterday, the international media has been ablaze with the news that Venezuela’s National Assembly - one of the five fundamental branches of the state - has been dissolved, quite literally overnight. De facto making Venezuela, well, a dictatorship, according to the mainstream press.

But is it true that the country’s legislative branch has been eliminated in one fell swoop? The short answer is no, not quite.

As usual, there is a grand canyon sized gap between what is being reported in the corporate press and the reality on the ground. Luckily VA is here to clear that up. So let’s start with the facts.

The Facts: Wednesday’s Ruling

The controversy is based around a ruling released by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) this past Wednesday, announcing that, given the National Assembly’s (AN) current “contempt” and “incapacitation” to carry out its constitutional duties, the judiciary will be stepping in in the interim to take its place.

The burning question is: what does the Supreme Court mean by incapacitation, and why does it consider the AN to be in contempt?

The explanation for this goes back to early December 2015, so we ask readers to bare with us as we run through the nitty gritty.

After the opposition won a parliamentary majority in the legislative elections of December 6th 2015, reports emerged surrounding allegations of vote buying in Amazonas state. The National Electoral Council (CNE) launched an investigation in response, while the TSJ made a ruling placing a bar on the four legislators from Amazonas taking office pending the results of the probe. These legislators include two lawmakers for the opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), an indigenous representative allied with the opposition, and a pro-government legislator.

While this order has been adhered to by pro-government legislators, the opposition has flouted it, not once, not twice, but over and over again.

The first time was back in January 2015 when the three contested legislators were initially sworn in, although they were promptly removed later the same month. The second time was on July 28th 2016, when opposition legislators took the decision to re-integrate the legislators into parliament in spite of the TSJ order.

Since July, the court has basically assumed that the AN is in contempt, and that its decisions are null, while pro-government legislators have boycotted parliamentary sessions. ...

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13018
 
"The Violence Will be Retweeted"
By MARCO TERUGGI - NOTAS, April 13th 2017

How many retweets are needed to construct truths? How much time in trending topics, minutes on periscope, in the repetition of videos, memes, and photos, is necessary for them to be accepted as truth? How much distance is there between reality and that truth? Is reality, at the end of the day, that truth?

Caracas, April 8th, 3pm. According to social media and news agencies, the streets of the city [Caracas] are a mix between the battle of Aleppo, and an insurrection of the masses, the police repress with dictatorial gusto, a red-colored gas just gave signs of a possible chemical attack by the regime. There are heroes: young people, adults, families, thousands who are saying “enough”, those who are resisting. They are convinced that they will do whatever it takes to achieve that long awaited and forbidden liberty. A libertarian epic being lived in the heart of Caracas.

At that same hour, in the west and the majority of the city, there is total calm. Just that the Miraflores Presidential Palace is more heavily guarded than usual and the metro is closed. If you don’t look at social media, or at news agencies, nothing is happening. It is a Saturday like any other.

Eastern Caracas: the road is blocked by the police in Plaza Venezuela. The epicenter of the violence is Liberator Avenue: they throw stones, mount barricades, attack fire engines, they have the latest state of the art mobile phones. They hold their open hands up for the photos, they choreograph poses, they retweet, they make the epic and the truth. How many of them are there? In total, and at their strongest moment, around 6000. There are 200 in some focos, in others they are just small cells. It doesn’t matter: closed camera shots can make up for the lack of masses – this is lesson number one when you look at the images – and a photo in a narrow or curved street can give the impression of a huge number [of protestors]. Who are they? The upper middle and upper classes, the bourgeoisie, and their children. They hate Chavez and Maduro, they despise the poor and Chavistas. It is the right-wing’s social base. Escualidos, which is different than saying opposition supporters. ...

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13051
 
lg.php
For over two weeks, the Venezuelan opposition has led violent protests aimed at toppling President Maduro.

Opposition protesters have vandalized various areas in Caracas in recent days causing economic damage estimated at around 50 billion bolivars, President Nicolas Maduro announced Sunday.

Among other damages, a high school, a Barrio Adentro Mission health center, various Mercal Mission public supermarkets, and several Popular Power ministries have reportedly been severely affected.

The right-wing demonstrators also set fire to and damaged facilities of the Nevado Mission, meant to protect animals living in the city, as well as the Caracas subway.

“What we defeated and will continue defeating with peace and the constitution is the madness of hatred, the madness of fascism,” President Maduro said Sunday. For over two weeks, the opposition has led violent protests aimed at toppling Maduro. ...

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/ne...-From-Right-Wing-Vandalism-20170417-0019.html
 
In Detail: The Deaths So Far
By VENEZUELANALYSIS, April 27th 2017

Since April 4, 2017, violent anti-government protests have rocked Venezuela.

Characterised by deadly clashes between state security forces and opposition demonstrators, vandalism and destruction of public institutions, and the assassination of Chavista supporters, the unrest has left 31 people dead to date. Hundreds more have been injured.

Despite the heavy press coverage, there is significant confusion over how these deaths occurred and at the hands of whom. In a bid for clarity, Venezuelanalysis provides readers with an in-depth and a complete account of the deaths so far below.

This table will be updated on a daily basis in accordance with the results of ongoing investigations as well as new incidents.

Readers will note that a number of deaths have still not been accounted for given that substantive criminal allegations have yet to surface regarding the circumstances and alleged party responsible for the killings.

Total death count: 31
Date last updated: April 27


Deaths caused by authorities 5

Direct victims of opposition political violence 9

Indirect victims opposition political violence 1

Deaths still unaccounted for 9

Accidental deaths 8

Deaths attributed to pro-gov’t civilians 0 ...

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13081

Names of those killed and details of incidents at link.
 
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